Michael Johnson of Johns Hopkins University discusses the reasons antebellum Midwestern settlers, including those in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, excluded slavery from their states. Johnson considers racism and fear of competition as two possible reasons.

To view this clip, select "The Expansion of Slavery, White Racial Attitudes, and the Settlement of Illinois" under "Frontier Settlement Video."

Charles McCurdy of the University of Virginia contrasts the emphasis of the antebellum Whig party on public interest with the Democratic party's emphasis on individual rights.

To view this clip, select "Whig Political Ideas" under "Economic Development and Labor Video."

Kathryn Kish Sklar of SUNY-Binghamton discusses the change in family structure in the mid-19th century which heralded the institutionalization of the "Victorian family," in which the husband and the wife were seen as inhabiting separate "spheres" of work and home.

To listen to this lecture, select "Family Life and the Development of the Middle Classes in Antebellum America" under "Economic Development and Labor Video."

Edward L. Ayers of the University of Virginia looks at the early antebellum support of African colonization as an answer to U.S. racial tensions, and considers it as a possible root of the later abolitionist movement.

To listen to this lecture, select "The Movement of African-American Colonization" under "African-American Experience Video."

Edward L. Ayers of the University of Virginia discusses the movement of religions, ways of life, racial attitudes, and other cultural aspects into frontier areas. Ayers focuses specifically on the movement of race-related concepts into Illinois, including a general resistance to slaveholding and a general unfriendliness to free blacks. He also mentions how politicians, such as Abraham Lincoln, had to take care to tailor their political messages for particular regions.

To listen to this lecture, select "Southerners on the Frontier," and scroll to "African-American Experience Videos."

Charles McCurdy of the University of Virginia outlines the legal cases that preceded the U.S. Supreme Court Case Dred Scott v. Sandford. McCurdy looks at the support, until the 1830s, of the master's side of cases involving slaves suing for freedom following time spent in a free state; the support, beginning in the 1830s, of the slave's side of such cases in free states; the life of Dred Scott prior to the case; and the climbing of the case up the U.S. court system.

Eric Foner of Columbia University looks at antebellum consideration of African colonization as a means to deal with race tensions, focusing on the opposition of most free African Americans to the proposition.

Eric Foner of Columbia University examines the effect of the Dred Scott v. Sandford U.S. Supreme Court decision on the state of antebellum U.S. politics, focusing particularly on the divisive effects it had within the Democratic party.

To view this clip, select "The Dred Scott Decision and National Politics" under "African-American Experience Video."

Eric Foner of Columbia University outlines the results of the Dred Scott v. Sandford U.S. Supreme Court case, which institutionalized the exclusion of African Americans from citizenship, and Republican denunciation of the Court's decision (including Abraham Lincoln's opposition to the ruling).

To view this clip, select "The Dred Scott Decision of 1857" under "African-American Experience Video."

Eric Foner of Columbia University discusses the implementation of the Fugitive Slave Law and Northern reactions to it. He also considers the contradiction between Southern support of the Fugitive Slave Law and of state rights, as well as Abraham Lincoln's own political (if not personal) support of the Fugitive Slave Law.

To view this clip, select "Fugitive Slaves and the Compromise of 1850" under "African-American Experience Video."